Ace Lightning and The Little Old Lady of Doom
by Replica Velocity a.k.a. X5 714
Summary: Based post season two. When Mark and Ace Lightning go looking for Lord Fear after his betrayal after defeating Kilobyte, they might end up finding something even more terrifying than the Lord of Fear. One shot filler piece.


Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever owned Ace Lightning. Rick Sigglekow and the BBC do, I am just playing around. This fanfiction is set in the 'Once Upon A Time' universe- before the story and after Season 2.

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**Ace Lightning and the Little Old Lady of Doom**

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The days had become really repetitive, like he was stuck in a loop of some sort.

Mark Hollander walked along the sidewalk as he had done for the last week. He crossed the road and swung back onto his bicycle. Every day was the same, ride his bike to the observatory and help Ace Lightning scour the town for Lord Fear.

Mark had never liked Lord Fear- but it had always been for the basic reasons. Fear's attacks put his family and friends at risk. Lord Fear was trying to take over the world and destroy the Lightning Knights which included him along with them. The constant battles. Now Mark hated Lord Fear for a new reason- what it did to his best friend. Mark had seen a glimpse of this before, when Sparx had been sent back to the sixth dimension. But then Ace had not held Sparx in his arms as she faded away.

And if Illusion hadn't taken Ace's place- it would have been the other way round. Sometimes Mark woke up at night with a cold sweat, after the nightmare made him watch Ace fall again and again.

Mark's hands tightened and then his eyes widened. He swerved and he crashed into a letterbox. Dazed, Mark stared into the sky and Ace's face. "Do you have to do that?" Mark asked, getting up slowly. At least nothing was broken.

"I'm sorry Mark but you should be more prepared… what if I had been Fear?" Ace also now had the title of most paranoid- won from Cheseborough who was currently was being evaluated in a nice padded room. Mark felt the qualm of guilt occasionally over the science teacher's fate. But then, the teacher was safer there. One of these days, an evil might just finish the job.

Mark sighed, and tugged up his right jacket arm to reveal the lightning canon. "I guess Lord Fear would have been in for a surprise" Mark's tired smile fell flat. "If you're ready, we should get started"

He found it sad he had become so good at riding his bike with that blasted thing on.

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The way this worked was Mark went door to door with a survey for the houses that were occupied. If anyone looked like they were threatened, or if there was no answer… they checked it out discreetly. Some of the houses that sat empty, they would go into. The first few times, Ace had broken the lock to Mark's dismay before checking if there was another way in. A few of the empty houses were on his mum's real estate agency's books.

It started out like every other time, and Mark knew the questions about habits from watching the telly off by heart. Ace was wearing the motorcycle gear again and watched from a distance, and fortunately he had not tried to get him to wear the wig and dress. But his friend had mentioned it to Sparx… and she did not hold back her amusement about taking enjoyment from one of the less pleasant aspects the game or this battle had on his life.

And running on auto pilot left Mark thinking about how 'strange' things had become with Kat. She seemed fine with the videogame and seemed to have taken knowing as they were now 'together'.

And wasn't that what he wanted, no more lying or hiding the truth? Mark stopped a few feet from the last house on the street, an older place with an overgrown garden. Sometimes Mark felt like it should be someone else who knew the truth, calling him every night and helping keep it a secret from everyone else.

"Kid-" Ace looked at him and for a moment Mark thought the superhero would actually ask what was getting under his skin. They might have actually had 'the talk' about Illusion if at that moment they had not both heard it. The house they were in front of was Victorian, and it certainly looked like a place that Lord Fear might park the Doom Wagon. But it was the singing, the wailing… and both Mark and Ace knew only one person or evil that sounded that bad and sang like that. Sang as in nothing remotely like singing. It made a dying cat sound pleasant.

Ace Lightning changed the costume and Mark quickly checked to make sure no one had noticed.

Mark dropped his bike on the lawn- better it be stolen than him trying to undo the lock as Lord Fear tried to blast him. "Let's do this the right way" Mark said, taking the lead. There was something about the new dynamic that was strange- having to be the one who made the choices and that wasn't going to change as long as Ace kept focusing on ending Fear.

They should be focusing on stopping him sure- but there was still finding the rest of the amulet. No one really brought up Illusion- Chuck was searching, but it got hard to talk about it because every day the search came up empty and the brief moment before Ace asked- there was hope in the superhero's eyes. And then it went away again, leaving them empty.

At least if they got in here and dealt with Lord Fear it least that would be done. The door was unlocked and Mark quietly opened the door.

The interior was fairly cluttered when it came to furniture- but nothing matched. It all looked like something out of a yard sale, only indoors. The wailings continued, and Ace and Mark crept up the stairs. The sound of the shower was now obvious. Mark was torn between surprise that Lord Fear actually showered- and the desperate hope that he would rather see anything than Fear without clothes- even if he was only a skeleton.

Ace motioned to aim for the door and Mark did so. Opening the door would just give Fear a chance to run… although a moment later Mark was wishing that they had just abstained from blasting the door. That they had knocked first.

The door broke open and Ace was faster than Mark in stepping in and the shower curtain moved. Mark went dark red and looked away in horror and Ace averted his eyes as an old woman stared at them.

"We're sorry ma'am, official lightning knight business… we will leave now"

Ace and Mark had turned around at the same time they heard a step as the old woman got out. "Well aren't you a considerate… you must be out of this world"

Mark didn't look back as he answered. "Something like that, we are really sorry… so if you could just forget this ever happened-"

"Hush dear, now forgetting your friend that would be like, even without my glasses I can tell-" And then the old lady said something that Mark knew he would block out for years to come, if only to ever be able to spend time with his own grandmother again.

Mark had no idea that Ace could actually look as red as he did now. He finally focused in on what the old woman was saying- including putting on a bathrobe and having them stay awhile.

And it might have happened, if only to keep the old lady from saying anything if she hadn't… Ace Lightning knew the Code, and knew that comforting a mortal they had just blown the bathroom door on, was the right thing to do… as long as… the old mortal woman…

Ace jerked as the old lady pinched his… and turned around in shock only to get an inadvertent second glance and realizing what the now obsessive gleam in her eyes meant.

The ceiling was too low to fly in and there were too many obstacles to use his speed, so Ace started to make his way to the door, followed closely by Mark and right behind them was the old woman still hitting on Ace with some very descriptive wording.

They reached the open door and ran out into the street as Mark lifted up his bike to stand, and hopped on as Ace took to the air above him.

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The sidekick and hero rode and flew as the old woman tried to vain to catch up. As she fell out of sight- it wasn't enough to stop Mark and Ace moving until they got back to the Thunder Tower/Observatory, Ace sticking close by Mark in case the real Lord Fear tried anything.

Sparx, Random Virus and Chuck stared at the horrified expressions on both their faces.

Sparx was the first to ask anything. "What happened- did Kilobyte get out of the game or something"

It never occurred to Mark until after they had told them what had happened that there would be something more embarrassing than running around dressed up as girl and being hit on by Wayne. To his credit Chuck did cover his mouth to stop from laughing, and Random Virus did roll outside… and Mark knew that even the evil side of Random probably would have found it amusing, as something ' a weakling deserved'

"So you were scared of a little old lady?" Sparx asked, alternatively looking at both Ace and Mark. She was very happy- enjoying their mortification. "Like the Little Old Lady of Doom"

Ace tried to rise above Sparx's baiting. "It was a serious matter… an accident, leaving only lessens the impact of our intrusion…"

For a stupid moment, Mark actually thought that Sparx was going to drop it.

"I don't know Ace; I mean what did she do… Mark you want to fill me in?" Mark shook his head rapidly, he was glad that they had both left out the part where the old lady had done… that to Ace.

Sparx would never let him live it down.

Sparx was still grinning ear to ear. "So… how wrinkly?" The question finally got Chuck to burst out laughing.

There was very a good chance Sparx would never let Ace or Mark ever live it down anyway.

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**The End**


End file.
